Helen Van Etten

Helen Van Etten of Topeka was appointed to the Kansas Board of Regents by Governor Sam Brownback in 2013. She is the chief audiologist for the Topeka School District.

Van Etten currently serves the Eisenhower Excellence in Public Service Series as a member of the Board of Governors, a position she has held since 2010, and has been a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and Kansas Speech-Language-Hearing Association since 1988. From 1998-2006, she served on the Board of Directors for the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (KCDHH), and from 2004-2007 she was an Advisory Committee Member for KAN Be Healthy, a Medicaid program for children, teenagers, and young adults. Van Etten is chair of the Kansas Board of Regents Academic Affairs Standing Committee, and serves as the Board's representative for the Midwest Higher Education Compact (MHEC).

Van Etten was elected National Committeewoman for the Kansas Republican Party in January of 2008. She received her bachelor’s degree in Education in 1977, a Master of Audiology degree in 1981, and her doctoral degree in Audiology in 2002. She is a National Board Member of the National Federation of the Grand Order of Pachyderm Clubs, and is the founder and current President of the Shawnee County Pachyderm Club.